THE  OCTOBER  CONTEST! 


Shall  FREE  TRADF  be  the  SETTLED  POLICY  of  this  GOVERNMENT ! 


ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  BY 


OF  FRANKLIN  COUNTY, 


MCCLURE, 


At  the  WIGWAM,  corner  of  Sixth  and  Brown  Streets, 

Philadelphia, 

WEDNESDAY  SEPTEMBER  5th,  1860. 


- <  —  •*■■> - - 

Fellow-Citizens  of  Philadelphia: — 

We  are  upon  the  threshold  of  the  great  political  revolution  of  the  age.  It  is  not  the 
whirlwind  that  has,  in  times  gone  by,  swept  the  so-called  Democratic  party  from  power. 
Those  revolutions  demanded  redress  from  the  flagrant  abuses  of  the  Government ;  but  they 
taught  nothing — established  nothing.  Honors  and  emoluments  changed;  a  few  of  the  glar¬ 
ing  evils  of  power  were  corrected,  and  there  the  revolution  ended. 

But  the  mighty  revolution  now  progressing  is  based  upon  vital  and  positive  issues,  which 
are  clearly  defined  an*d  well  understood  ;  and  the  popular  verdict  in  their  favor  will  shape 
the  destiny  of  this  Republic,  when  you  and  I  shall  sleep  in  the  “  City  of  the  Silent.”  It  is 
second  in  importance  and  positive  meaning  only  to  one  great  struggle  in  our  history,  and 
that  is  the  revolution  of  our  fathers,  that  gave  birth  to  freedom  in  the  New  World,  and 
handed  down  to  us  this  rich  inheritance,  crimsoned  with  their  blood.  This  revolution, 
fraught  with  such  momentous  issues,  invades  no  rights,  assails  no  ancient  landmarks.  It 
will  be  bloodless  in  its  achievement,  and  rich  in  the  fruits  of  enlightened  progress  and  fra¬ 
ternal  peace.  It  will  establish,  as  the  settled  policy  of  this  Republic,  for  ourselves  and  our 
children,  these  just  and  vital  doctrines  : — 

That  the  union  of  these  States  shall  be  maintained  against  all  Sectionalism  and  Treason, 
come  from  whence  they  may. 

That  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution  and  the  supremacy  of  the  laws  shall  be  pre¬ 
served  inviolate. 

That  adequate  Protection  shall  be  afforded  by  the  General  Government  to  our  industry. 

That  oifr  free  Territories  shall  not  be  desolated  by  the  extension  of  Human  Slavery. 

That  our  great  Western  domain  shall  be  devoted  to  Free  Homes  for  actual  settlers. 

That  the  purity  of  the  ballot-box  and  the  integrity  of  the  elective  franchise  shall  be  main¬ 
tained,  as  the  very  basis  of  our  free  institutions. 


V 


2 

#  \  y 

That  our  Government  shall  owe  its  first  and  highest  duty  to  our  own  peaceful  progress; 
to  the  development  of  our  own  vast  resources;  to  the  elevation  and  prosperity  of  our  own 
industry;  asking  nothing  of  the  world  that  is  not  right,  and  submitting  to  nothing  that  is 
wrong. 

These  are  Vie  issues.  They  are  so  clearly  marked  that  he  who  runs  may  read.  Against 
them  we  have  arrayed  every  variety  of  men  and  measures.  Distracted,  demoralized  and 
belligerent,  weighed  down  by  their  own  perfidy  and  profligacy,  exhausted  by  their  own  in¬ 
testine  conflicts,  yet  they  hope  to  stagger  into  the  field  and  rally  for  a  death-struggle.  That 
•it  will  be  desperate  in  efiort,  and  decisive  in  its  result,  the  signs  of  the  times  clearly  fore¬ 
shadow.  They  will  come  with  all  the  hues  of  the  chameleon,  and  with  all  the  “cohesive 
power  of  public  plunder.”  They  will  bring  gifts  to  flatter,  and  vengeance  to  terrify ;  and 
in  the  face  of  the  handwriting  on  the  wall,  that  inexorably  points  to  their  overwhelming 
defeat,  they  will  die  upon  the  field  cursing  each  other. 

We  have  a  contest  in  October.  It  is  the  Magenta  of  the  war.  What  is  it  to  teach!  Of 
its  result  I  do  not  inquire,  for  that  is  not  doubtful.  But  when  Mr.  Curtin  shall  have  re¬ 
ceived  230,000  votes,  and  Mr.  Foster  shall  have  received  200,000  votes,  how  shall  we  inter¬ 
pret  it?  We  shall  know  that  230,000  men  have  declared  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union 
and  the  supremacy  of  the  laws ;  for  protection  to  our  industry,  for  free  territories  and  for 
free  lands  to  the  landless  ;  hut  for  what  shall  200,000  men  have  voted?  For  a  slave-code  and 
for  disunion  ?  or  for  popular  sovereignty  and  non-intervention  ?  For  a  protective  tariff,  or 
for  free  trade  ?  For  maintaining  the  freedom  of  free  territories,  or  for  carrying  the  wither¬ 
ing  blight  of  slavery,  in  the  name  of  the  Constitution,  into  every  portion  of  the  Union? 
With  such  issues  in  the  contest,  men  must  intend  something  by  their  votes;  what  will  the 
Foster  vote  mean  ?  Is  it  to  be  counted  for  Breckinridge  in  South  Carolina,  and  for  Douglas 
in  Illinois?  Is  Yancey  to  be  made  jubilant  by  the  fact  that  200,000  men  in  Pennsylvania 
have  voted  for  a  slave-code  and  to  maintain  the  right  of  secession,  -while  Richardson,  of 
Illinois,  proclaims  the  same  strength  here  for  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  doctrines  ?  To  these 
questions  there  must  be  answers.  Politicians  may  combine  to  carry  the  spoils  of  office, 
each  intent  upon  cheating  the  other  when  success  shall  have  been  reached,  but  the  thou¬ 
sands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  the  people  who  think  this  free  government  worthy  of  their 
fidelity,  are  not  to  be  blindfolded  and  huckstered  like  sheep  in  the  shambles.  They  look 
around  on  this  great  State  and  they  see  on  all  hands  the  proud  monuments  of  their  industry. 
They  see  the  iron  horse  singing  his  wild  song  over  our  mountains  and  through  our  valleys, 
and  carrying  in  his  train  the  fruits  of  our  labor  to  pour  into  the  lap  of  our  commerce.  They 
see  beautiful  homes,  and  green  fields,  and  schools  and  churches  ;  they  see  our  hills  laden 
with  slumbering  wealth,  and  our  plains  rich  in  all  that  a  bountiful  God  could  bestow  ;  and 
with  all  these  blessings  they  behold  our  laborers  beggared,  our  commerce  crippled,  the  rude 
music  of  our  forges  and  the  hum  of  our  spindles  silenced — all — all  because  the  Democratic 
'party  has  made  Free  Trade  its  favorite  policy.  Will  such  men,  those  who  seek  in  vain  the 
privilege  to  toil,  and  to  enrich  our  State  by  the  development  of  its  wealth ;  will  such  men 
turn  upon  themselves  again,  and  vote  even  a  doubtful  ticket,  on  the  question  of  protecting 
their  own  labor?  Will  they  vote  even  a  doubtful  ticket  on  the  question  of  protecting  the  ter¬ 
ritories  as  free  homes  for  themselves  and  their  children  ?  Will  they  vote  even  a  doubtful 
ticket  on  the  question  of  a  slave-code,  that  would  plant  the  menial  slave  beside  them  in 
every  field  and  shop  in  the  West,  and  degrade  and  dishonor  their  labor?  Will  they  vote 
even  a  doubtful  ticket  on  the  question  of  Disunion?  Never! 

But  it  is  answered  that  Mr.  Foster  is  for  a  Protective  Tariff — that  he  voted  against  the 
repeal  of  the  tariff  of  1842.  True,  he  did  so,  and  he  boastingly  refers  to  his  record  as  proof 
positive  of  his  fidelity  on  this  question.  The  same  year  he  voted  with  David  Wilmot  for  the 
Wihnot  Proviso.  Is  that  record  proof  positive  of  his  convictions  now  ?  Is  a  vote  for  the 
tariff  in  1846  to  preclude  inquiry  as  to  his  position,  while  a  vote  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
cast  during  the  same  session,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  indicating  his  policy  on  the  Slavery 


3 


question  ?  He  now  denounces  the  men  who  think  and  act  as  he  thought  and  acted  in  Con¬ 
gress  on  the  issue  of  restricting  Slavery,  as  sectional  agitators  ;  but  a  single  vote  for  the 
tariff  is  to  remove  all  suspicion  as  to  his  fidelity  to  Protection. 

Henry  D.  Foster  is  the  foe  of  a  Protective  Policy!  I  would  not  do  him  injustice.  Our 
cause  does  not  require  that  at  our  hands.  He  was  a  party  to  the  great  fraud  of  1844,  that 
carried  Pennsylvania  for  Mr.  Polk  over  Mr.  Clay,  on  the  ground  that  the  Tariff  of  1842 
should  not  be  disturbed.  With  the  inauguration  of  President  Polk,  Henry  I).  Foster  en¬ 
tered  Congress,  and  when  the  perfidy  of  that  Administration  on  this  question  became  mani¬ 
fest,  he  was  silent  as  the  grave.  His  voice  wras  not  heard  asserting  the  claims  of  his  own 
people  as  himself  and  the  Democratic  party  had  professed  to  recognize  them,  and  as  his 
very  manhood  required  him  to  do.  He  meekly  voted  against  the  repeal,  and  then  fell  into 
the  arms  of  the  Administration  that  was  reeking  with  a  fraud  practiced  upon  his  own  con¬ 
stituents  and  brethren.  Fourteen  years  ago  this  scene  was  enacted  in  Washington.  Since 
then  Mr.  Foster  has  been  on  the  stump,  in  our  Legislative  halls,  and  strove  to  be  both  a 
national  Senator  and  Representative.  During  all  these  fourteen  years,  his  voice  has  never 
been  heard  in  repudiation  of  the  perfidy  of  the  Democratic  party  in  giving  us  free  trade, 
with  its  endless  train  of  desolation,  for  the  protective  tariff  of  1842.  He  steadily  and  with¬ 
out  protest,  voted  for  free  trade  members  of  Congress,  for  free  trade  Governors,  for  free  trade 
Presidents,  and  wherever  his  party  has  led  he  has  followed  it.  It  has  led  undeviaiingly  for 
free  trade ,  and  no  one  followed  more  complacently  than  Henry  D.  Foster  ! 

At  last,  however,  he  is  presented  as  a  candidate  for  Governor.  His  own  State  is  pros¬ 
trated  in  the  dust  by  a  financial  revulsion,  brought  on  by  the  legitimate  results  of  Free 
Trade.  Our  specie  was  drained  from  us  to  pay  for  foreign  fabrics,  and  our  labor  left  unem¬ 
ployed  and  beggared  at  home.  Disaster  could  not  but  follow,  and  three  years  ago  the  storm 
broke  with  relentless  fury  upon  our  people.  The  stoutest  hearted  quailed  beneath  the 
stroke,  and  thousands  went  down  to  bankruptcy  and  ruin,  while  other  thousands  have  to¬ 
day  but  half  recovered  from  the  blow.  Adversity  taught  its  lesson,  and  our  merchants,  our 
mechanics,  our  business  men,  our  manufacturers,  and  all  others  who  live  by  their  industry, 
resolved  that  the  Government  must  afford  protection.  They  appealed  to  a  Democratic  Ad¬ 
ministration  in  vain,  and  they  are  now  about  to  strike  decisively  for  their  own  labor  and  for 
their  own  firesides.  The  storm  gathers  over  the  head  of  the  long-silent  Foster,  and  he 
makes  a  pilgrimage  to  Washington,  and  has  it  duly  chronicled  by  telegraph  that  he  had 
gone  there  to  pass  the  Morrill  tariff  bill.  ^ 

It  would  naturally  be  supposed  that  when  he  went  there  and  found  the  fate  of  the  tariff 
in  the  hands  of  a  Democratic  Senate,  he  would  demand  as  a  matter  of  right  to  hia  prostrated 
brethren  a  protective  policy.  He  could  well  have  said  “Gentlemen,  the  tariff  of  1842  was 
perfidiously  destroyed,  and  free  trade  given  in  exchange. by  a  Democratic  Administration. 
It  was  done  in  violation  of  our  plighted  faith,  and  it  has  brought  desolation  to  every  section 
of  our  State.  It  has  paralyzed  thousands  of  strong  arms  and  brought  want  to  their  homes; 
it  has  left  our  boundless  wealth  to  slumber  in  our  hills,  it  has  crippled  our  commerce  by 
denying  it  the  rich  fruits  of  a  prosperous  and  diversified  industry;  and  in  the  name  of  my 
great  State,  and  in  the  name  of  my  suffering  brethren,  I  demand  the  fostering  care  of  the 
General  Government,  by  the  passage  of  the  Protective  Tariff  bill  now  before  you  for  consi¬ 
deration.”  Such,  however,  was  not  his  language.  He  implored  them  to  pass  the  Tariff, 
“  for,”  said  he,  “  if  you  defeat  the  Tariff,  Col.  Curtin  will  defeat  me  overwhelmingly.  I  will 
not  have  the  ghost  of  a  chance  !”  This  was  the  first  Tariff  speech  Henry  D.  Foster  made  in 
fourteen  years  ! 

Rut  what  of  his  mission  ?  Where  are  its  fruits  ?  Free  trade  still  reigns  !  Col.  Curtin 
was  there  begging  for  Protection,  not  for  his  own  sake,  but  for  his  native  State  ;  and  not  a 
man  in  the  Senate,  opposed  to  the  Democracy,  failed  to  vote  for  it.  By  Democratic  vote' 
alone  it  was  defeated,  after  it  had  passed  the  House  by  a  decisive  majority. 

'/ 


4 


If  it  were  possible  to  elect  Henry  D.  Foster  Governor,  this  fall,  what  would  the  popular 
verdict  teach  on  the  tariff?  Would  not  every  Democratic  State  South  rejoice  that  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  had  voted  against  the  Tariff  party?  In  vain  would  it  be  urged  that  Mr.  Foster  had 
yielded  to  the  pressure,  and  professed  to  equal  Colonel  Curtin  in  his  devotion  to  protection. 
When  Hunter  and  Slidell,  and  other  Southern  Democratic  leaders  refused  to  bend  against 
free  trade,  even  to  give  a  ray  of  life  for  the  Democracy  to  save  Pennsylvania,  what  would  bej 
their  answer  if  your  State  should  repudiate  those  who  are  honestly  and  consistently  identi¬ 
fied  with  protection  ?  It  would  fix  free  trade  as  the  settled  policy  of  this  Government !  Can 
this  be  doubted  ?  But  when  Pennsylvania  shall  thunder  in  favor  of  protection  by  the  elec¬ 
tion  of  Col.  Curtin,  the  People’s  candidate  for  Governor,  there  will  be  no  mistaking  the 
meaning  of  her  verdict.  It  will  be  a  demand  for  protection  consistent  with  her  rights,  and 
she  will  send  Senators  and  Congressmen  who  will  be  true  to  her  interests.  Then,  and  not 
till  then,  can  ice  have  relief  from  the  terrible  blight  of  Free  Trade  ! 

I  repeat  it,  Henry  D.  Foster  is  not  the  friend  of  protection.  He  cannot  be,  and  remain 
in  the  so-called  Democratic  party.  It  is  the  deadly  foe  of  free  industry.  Its  National  Con¬ 
vention  at  Cincinnati,  in  1856,  declared  directly  for  “  progressive  free  trade  its  Convention 
at  Charleston,  in  1860,  did  the  same,  and  ridiculed  and  scouted  a  tariff  resolution  ;  its  two 
Conventions  at  Baltimore  did  the  same  ;  and  both  of  its  candidates  for  the  Presidency  are 
conspicuous  for  their  hostility  to  protection.  Douglas  voted  for  the  repeal  of  the  tariff  of 
1842,  and  has  steadily  voted  and  acted  in  favor  of  free  trade  during  his  whole  Congressional 
career.  Breckinridge  has  never,  by  vote  or  speech,  favored  protection.  Neither  would  ap¬ 
prove  a  tariff  bill  looking  to  the  protection  of  our  industry ;  and  yet  one  or  the  other  is  sup¬ 
ported  fijr  the  Presidency  by  Mr.  Foster.  Is  that  the  act  of, a  friend  of  the  tariff? 

I  submit  to  candid  men  whether  this  is  not  a  fair  and  just  test  of  Mr.  Foster’s  true  posi¬ 
tion  on  this  momentous  question.  He  comes  from  the  ranks  of  -those  who,  by*matchless 
perfidy,  gave  us  Free  Trade  ;  he  has  acted  in  their  counsels  for  fourteen  years  ;  he  has  sus¬ 
tained  them  by  every  vote  and  act  down  to  the  present  year,  even  when  the  fruits  of  Free 
Trade  were  closing  almost  every  avenue  of  prosperous  industry  ;  and  now,  with  his  pro¬ 
fessions  of  friendship  lingering  on  our  ears,  he  will  crown  his  devotion  to  Free  Trade  by 
-voting  for  a  Free  Trade  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  who  would,  if  chosen,  hold  the  fate 
of  the  tariff  in  his  hands  ! 

I  repeat  again — Henry  D.  Foster  is  the  deadly  foe  of  protection  !  That  he  is  not  its 
open,  manly  foe,  while  striving  to  inflict  the  deadliest  wounds  upon  it,  can  be  mentioned 
only  to  his  shame. 

Looking  fairly  and  dispassionately  at  the  record  of  Henry  D.  Foster  as  made  up  by  his 
acts,  we  can  tell  what  interpretation  to  put  upon  the  vote  he  shall  receive  in  October  next, 
on  the  vital  issue  of  protection.  Whatever  voters  may  honestly  intend,  they  will  be  counted 
for  Free  Trade — they  can  mean  nothing  else.  And  yet,  with  the  gigantic  fraud  of  1844 
familiar  to  all  as  household  words,  and  with  its  sad  fruits  still  reaching  every  shop,  and 
every  counting-room,  and  every  place  of  business,  it  is  boasted  that  tariff  men  will  vote  for 
Mr.  Foster.  It  is  boasted  in  every  Free  Trade  caucus  throughout  the  State,  that  in  Phila¬ 
delphia,  the  great  manufacturing  metropolis  of  our  land,  American  and  Tariff  votes  are  to  be 
transferred  to  Foster.  If  it  be  true,  all  should  know  it — leaders  and  masses.  If  it  be  false, 
as  I  know  it  is,  the  American  mechanics  and  laboring  men  of  this  City  should  know  that 
the  last  death-struggle  of  our  Free  Trade  rulers  is  quickened  by  the  hope  that  the  tariff 
Americans  are  to  fall  with  them  and  share  their  dishonored  grave. 

The  Boston  Pilot  demands  the  defeat  of  Col.  Curtin.  His  crime  is,  that  he  has  dared  to 
be  a  Protestant  and  an  American  ;  and  side  by  side  with  it  stand  the  free-trade  Democracy 
— the  old,  malignant  foe  of  every  doctrine  of  the  Americans — and  demand  his  -defeat,  be¬ 
cause  he  has  not  declared  for  John  Bell.  Is  Foster  for  John  Bell  ?  If  so,  he  is  entitled  to 
the  votes  of  those  who  prefer  John  Bell  for  the  Presidency.  Does  he  not  war  upon  every 


5 


principle  and  every  feature  of  the  public  policy  of  John  Bell  ?  I  do  not  blame  the  Breck¬ 
inridge  and  the  Douglas  politicians  for  formally  and  cordially  supporting  Mr.  Foster.  They 
can  make  common  cause  for  him,  for  between  them  there  are  two  common  bonds  of  union. 
Both  are  for  free  trade  ;  both  are  for  the  spoils  ;  and  each  hopes  to  behead  the  other  if  they 
can  succeed.  But  if  Bell  men  are  to  vote  for  Foster,  what  is  to  be  their  return  ?  what  the 
consideration  ?  You  see  it  telegraphed  now,  from  here  and  from  Washington,  to  the  seces¬ 
sion  journals,  that  the  Bell  men  are  to  join  hands  and  save  Foster.  It  was  announced  at 
the  Breckinridge  Headquarters  in  Washington,  but  a  few  nights  ago,  b}7  Hon.  John  M. 
Laundrum  and  other  disunion  leaders,  that  they  had  cheering  news  f  rom  the  North  ! — that 
the  Bell  men  had  joined  to  defeat  Lincoln,  and  that  “  they  were  non)  sure  of  the  election  of 
.  either  Breckinridge  by  the  House,  or  Lane  by  the  Senate .”  It  was  boastingly  added  that 
the  Breckinridge  party  meant  to  make  the  Bell  men  the  instruments  by  which  they  would 
again  ride  into  power,  and  rapturous  applause  went  up  from  the  delighted  disunionists.  I 
do  not  for  a  moment  suppose  that  the  masses  of  the  Bell  men,  either  here  or  elsewhere, 
mean  thus  to  place  the  destiny  of  this  great  Republic  in  the  hands  of  reckless  secessionists ; 
but  I  do  know  that  the  only  hopes  inspired  for  the  black  flag  of  disunion  in  this  contest, 
have  been  based  upon  the  expected  aid  of  the  Bell  men  of  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and 
New  Jersey.  If  the  Bell  men  vote  the  free  trade  and  disunion  State  ticket,  to  elect  John 
Bell  President,  and  the  disunionists  themselves  vote  the  same  ticket,  to  elect  either  Breck¬ 
inridge  or  Lane  President,  who  is  to  be  cheated  ?  There  is  fraud  to  be  practiced  upon  some 
party.  Upon  whom  is  it  to  fall  ?  The  Breckinridge  men  seem  to  know  full  well  that  it  is 
not  to  fall  upon  them.  The  Custom  House  officials  of  this  City,  who  have  had  Mr.  Foster 
in  close  keeping  while  here,  seem  to  know  that  they  are  not  to  be  cheated  by  polling  a 
large  vote  for  him.  They  feel  quite  easy  that  each  vote  for  Foster  is  to  count  with  all  the 
moral  force  that  votes  can  possess,  for  Free  Trade,  for  Breckinridge,  for  Buchanan.  They 
do  not  toil  and  sacrifice  their  means  in  vain.  They  do  not  rely  upon  vague  promises  and 
remote  contingencies.  They  could  not  be  persuaded  that  with  one  vote  to  start  on,  Breck¬ 
inridge  could  be  elected  President  in  the  House  ;  or  that  with  but  two  to  count  certain, 
Lane  could  be  chosen  in  the  Senate.  They  leave  that  kind  of  faith  to  the  friends  of  John 
Bell,  while  they  keep  candidates  for  Governor  within  their  own  exclusive  circle,  and  count 
their  votes  for  President  in  the  House  and  Senate  by  the’  ancient  rule  of  simple  addition. 

Imagine,  if  you  will,  that  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  this  great  city  of  workshops  and  fac¬ 
tories,  shall  be  cast  for  Henry  D.  Foster  for  Governor.  I  care  not  by  what  combinations,  or 
by  what  means,  or  with  what  assurances,  it  may  be  done.  There  is  not  a  disunionist  who 
would  not  shout  himself  hoarse  over  the  triumph,  there  is  not  a  foe  to  free  industry  who 
wTould  not  be  wild  with  joy,  there  is  not  an  advocate  of  a  slave-code  who. would  not  hail 
your  city  as  striking  for  the  universal  dominion  of  slavery,  there  is  not  a  slaver  upon  your 
coast  that  would  not  take  fresh  courage  in  its  brutal  traffic,  for  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love 
would  be  heralded  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other  as  striking  a  decisive  blow  for 
the  right  of  secession,  for  free  trade,  for  slavery  extension.  What  share  woidd  the  friends 
of  John  Bell  have  in  the  triumph  ?  A  patriotic  and  unspotted  public  life  -would  be  closed 
in  the  palsied  arms  of  free  trade  and  disunion  Democracy — its  lustre  dimmed,  its  setting 
sun  clouded  with  dishonor,  its  end  a  starless  night. 

I  do  not  fear  that  the  laboring  men  of  Philadelphia  can  be  either  bribed  or  bullied  into 
the  support  of  the  free  trade  candidate  for  Governor ;  but  some  may  be  defrauded  as  free  trade 
has  defrauded  honest  men  before.  If  the  Foster  men  were  to  come  before  you  manfully  and 
declare,  “  We  are  the  authors  of  free  trade  and  its  defenders,  come  and  cast  your  votes  with 
us” — not  one — no,  not  one  would  do  so.  But  they  come  with  gifts  and  fair  promises,  and 
mean  to  betray,  as  they  have  betrayed  in  times  gone  by.  They  come  with  the  professions 
of  devotion  to  protection,  and  mean  that  no  Tariff  man  shall  be  chosen  President  by  their 
votes!  They  beg  of  the  Bell  men  to  elect  Foster,  in  order  to  defeat  Lincoln.  And  what 
do  they  promise  for  John  Bell?  What  is  the  entertainment  to  which  men  are  invited? 


6 


Suppose  you  could  elect  Foster  and  defeat  Lincoln — what  then  ?  Is  there  a  Free  Trade  and 
Disunion,  or  even  a  Popular  Sovereignty  Democrat,  who  will  give  any  tangible  assurance 
that  he  will  vote  for  John  Bell  in  the  House,  or  Everett  in  the  Senate  ?  Are  avowed  Dis- 
unionists,  who  hold  the  power  in  the  Democratic  Congressional  and  Senatorial  delegations, 
to  stamp  the  lie  upon  themselves  by  voting  for  Bell  and  Everett?  The  question  is  a  fair 
one ;  who  is  prepared  to  answer  it  ?  Granted  for  a  moment,  that  an  election  by  the  people 
is  to  be  defeated,  that  the  popular  will  is  to  be  ignored,  and  the  Presidency  to  be  thrown 
into  the  hands  of  a  fewT  reckless  political  gamblers.  When  confusion  and  chaos  shall  come 
upon  us,  when  the  country  shall  be  convulsed  from  centre  to  circumference,  and  the  integ¬ 
rity  and  power  of  this  Government  is  about  to  be  tested  to  an  extent  never  approached  in 
our  history,  who  then  shall  claim  the  victory?  John  Bell  wall  have  one — but  one — vote  in  . 
the  House,  and  the  votes  of  six  men  can  make  Breckinridge  President  !  Stephen  A.  Doug¬ 
las  would  have  but  one  vote  in  the  House,  and  under  no  circumstances  could  he  command 
any  more.  If  Hamlin  and  Lane  are  the  men  who  would  be  returned  to  the  Senate  in  case 
of  a  failure  to  elect  in  the  House,  Breckinridge  might  fail  of  an  election,  for  Lane  would  all 
the  better  serve  the  purposes  of  the  Free  Trade  Disunionists,  and  they  could  easily  elect 
him  ;  but  if  Hamlin  and  Everett  should  be  the  men  who  must  pass  the  ordeal  of  an  election 
in  the  Senate,  the  House  would  make  the  President.  Six  men  coidd  do  it,  and  there  are 
twenty  from  whom  to  select  the  six.  He  who  supposes  that  the  House  would  not  make  the 
election,  with  so  few  votes  wanted  and  such  vast  interests  at  stake,  has  read  history  and 
studied  mankind  to  little  purpose.  In  such  a  contest,  it  becomes  men  to  look  results  squarely 
in  the  face.  I  repeat,  who  would  be  the  victors  by  the  election  of  Foster,  if  it  is  to  bring 
with  it  the  defeat  of  an  election  for  President  by  the  people  ?  Let  reason  and  truth  dictate 
the  answer  ! 

In  New  York,  pretended  leaders  of  the  Americans,  who  are  in  the  interests  of  the  Free 
Trade  Democracy,  have  transferred  themselves  to  Douglas,  and  are*  now  striving  to  force 
the  masses  of  the  party  into  the  arms  of  nearly  the  only  consistent  free  trader  of  our  leading 
statesmen.  The  New  York  Express  appeals  to  the  Bell  men  to  vote  the  truck  and  dicker 
ticket,  to  elect  John  Bell,  while  its  editor,  James  Brooks,  stumps  Maine  for  Douglas! 

In  New  Jersey,  the  same  class  of  men  have  gone  into  the  arms  of  the  Disunionists  and 
arranged  their  votes  for  Breckinridge.  Here  the  same  fraud  is  to  be  attempted  to  transfer 
the  Americans  to  Free  Trade  and  Foster,  backed  by  the  Boston  Pilot,  the  New  York  Ex¬ 
press,  the  Freeman’s  Journal,  the  Washington  Constitution,  and  the  two  mendicant  govern¬ 
ment  organs  of  this  city — the  Argus  and  the  Pennsylvanian.  It  will  be  done  in  the  name 
of  John  Bell — in  the  name  of  Protection.  But  when  that  day  comes,  let  those  who  wish  to 
cast  their  votes  on  their  own  account,  look  well  before  they  deposit  their  ballots. 

The  October  contest  in  Pennsylvania  will  settle  the  f  uture  tariff  policy  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  When  Col.  Curtin  shall  be  chosen  Governor,  the  verdict  cannot  be  mistaken.  It 
will  have  no  double  or  doubtful  meaning.  It  will  be  squarely,  unqualifiedly, for  protection. 
With  him,  and  with  him  only,  can  a  Legislature  be  chosen,  that  will  send  an  honest  friend 
of  the  tariff  to  the  Senate,  in  room  of  Governor  Bigler  ;  and  with  him,  and  with  him  only, 
can  be  carried  a  delegation  to  Congress  that  can  command  protection  to  our  languishing 
industry.  He  who  thinks  otherwise,  or  permits  himself  to  be  led  otherwise,  turns  upon  him¬ 
self  with  suicidal  hands.  Col.  Curtin  is  not  only  for  protection  himself,  but  all  his  party, 
here  and  elsewhere,  are  unwavering  friends  of  the  same  policy.  His  election  will  speak  for 
the  revival  of  our  prostrated  brethren  in  distinct  and  unequivocal  tones ;  it.  will  place  the 
tariff  party  of  the  country  in  power,  and  will  declare  the  same  principle  from  the  home  of 
Hamlin  to  the  grave  of  Broderick. 

But  the  Free  Trade  and  Disunion  party  will  not  stop  with  attempting  a  startling  fraud 
upon  the  Americans.  In  its  death  throes  it  will  reach  wildly  for  aid  to  friend  and  foe — to 
those  who  have  shared  its  favors  and  to  those  over  whom  it  has  thrown  its  withering  blight. 


7 


It  will  turn  to  the  commerce  it  has  crippled,  and  beg  to  be  saved  from  its  just,  but  fearful 
doom.  It  will  plead  in  the  name  of  the  Union  it  has  wantonly  and  wickedly  thrown  into 
sectional  discord;  and  some,  it  may  be,  will  hearken  to  its  appeal.  I  come  from  a  portion 
of  our  State  where  revulsions  fall  lightly  upon  our  people.  So  long  as  seed-time  and  har¬ 
vest  shall  come  in  their  order,  we  hope  for  plenty  and  to  spare.  We  are  strangers  to  the 
rule  that  would  govern  opinion  by  the  laws  of  trade.  AYe  pour  the  teeming  wealth  of  our 
rich  valleys  into  the  lap  of  your  commerce,  but  we  exact  no  political  duties  in  return.  AVe 
ask  all  men  to  be  just  to  themselves,  to  their  own  great  State,  to  their  common  country. 
AVe  know  where  fall  the  deadliest  blows  when  the  dark  day  of  disaster  comes.  They 
fall  not  upon  our  rich  fields,  for  their  golden  harvests  come  though  your  ships 
should  rot  at  your  wharves.  It  may  reach  us,  and  cloud  our  prosperity  ;  but  its  ter¬ 
rible  fury  falls  here,  and  scatters  desolation  in  its  course.  In  1857,  when  the  full  fruits 
of  Free  Trade  burst  upon  the  country,  its  keenest  thrusts  came  to  the  heart  of  your 
commerce.  There  is  scarcely  a  merchant  in  all  your  city  who  did  not  stagger  beneath 
that  revulsion;  and  how  many  have  disappeared  in  utter  bankruptcy?  AVho,  in  your 
commercial  circles  escaped  it?  What  counting-house  did  not  find  disaster  hovering 
around  it?  Many,  very  many,  fell  to  rise  no  more.  Many  others  have  bent  beneath  the 
storm,  and  now  struggle  in  concealed  embarrassment,  hoping  for  the  return  of  prosperity. 
All,  all  were  crippled,  more  or  less,  and  still  the  fruits  of  free  trade  linger  in  your  midst. 
Your  Banks  were  closed  against  you  in  the  hour  of  peril ;  their  specie  had  been  drained 
from  them  to  pay  for  European  labor  while  our  own  brethren  begged  in  vain  for  the  boon  of 
requited  industry.  Now  the  authors  of  all  this  desolation  are  trembling  before  the  threat¬ 
ened  reprobation  of  a  long  deceived  and  often  betrayed  people.  They  see  the  retributive 
stroke  aimed  at  them  with  fatal  precision,  and  in  the  recklessness  of  despair,  they  turn  to 
the  commerce  they  have  paralyzed  and  to  the  Americans  they  have  spurned,  and  beg,  as 
did  the  evil  ones  of  old,  to  be  let  alone  in  their  terrible  supremacy. 

I  cannot  pursue  the  investigation  of  these  questions  as  I  would  wish.  The  brief  time 
usually  devoted  to  a  single  speech,  is  altogether  inadequate  to  the  task.  But  I  must  impress 
upon  all  candid  and  patriotic  men  the  truth  that  the  votes  to  be  cast  for  Governor,  in  a  few 
weeks,  will  tell  for  years  to  come,  for  the  weal  or  woe  of  our  great  industrial  interests.  Nor 
will  the  significance  of  the  popular  verdict  in  October,  stop'Vith  the  vital  question  of  the 
honor  and  the  prosperity  of  our  labor.  AYhen  disunion  is  openly  avowed  and  threatened  ; 
when  it  is  boldly  declared  that  the  decision  of  the  people  in  the  selection  of  a  Chief  Magis¬ 
trate  will  be  insolently  defied  ;  when  our  Territories  are  thrown  open  to  the  fatal  tread  of 
the  menial  slave,  and  free  homes  refused  to  our  own  sons,  who  would  make  the  AVestern 
plains  bloom  and  blossom  as  the  rose  ;  when  our  treasury  is  bankrupt,  and  our  national 
debt  steadily  increasing ;  when  official  corruption  and  profligacy  have  impoverished  us  at 
home  and  disgraced  us  abroad,  and  when  States  are  persistently  refused  admission  into  the 
Union,  for  the  single  crime  of  devotion  to  free  labor,  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  must  feel 
that  their  votes  in  October  will  speak  trumpet-tongued  for  the  cause  of  right  or  for  the 
cause  of  wrong.  That  they  shall  speak  for  truth,  for  freedom,  for  our  free  industry,  and 
for  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  we  owe  it  to  ourselves,  to  our  country,  to  our  posterity,  and 
to  God ! 


I 


;  '  ...  .i 


PHILADELPHIA  CITY 


COMMITTEE  OF  SUPERINTENDENCE. 


President:  JOHN"  D.  WATSON". 
Secretaries:  JOHN  J.  FRANKLIN,  THOS.  J.  SMITH. 

WARDS. 


1.  JOHN  SHAFFER. 

2.  THOS.  H.  LEABOURN. 

3.  park’t  McLaughlin. 

4.  JOHN  M.  BUTLER. 

5.  JOHN  J.  FRANKLIN. 

6.  SAM’L  S.  MONEY. 

7.  JOHN  D.  WATSON. 

8.  HENRY  McINTIRE. 

9.  JAMES  FREEBORN. 

10.  W.  HART  CARR. 

11.  WM.  ANDRUS. 

12.  EDW’D  SIMPSON. 


WARDS. 

13.  EDW’D  G.  MARCH. 

*14.  EDW’D  E.  WALLACE. 

15.  SAM’L  DANIELS. 

16.  THOS.  J.  SMITH. 

17.  JESSE  LETTSO. 

18.  RICH’D  WOOD. 

19.  JNO.  F.  TRENCHARD,  M.C. 

20.  GEORGE  W.  MOONEY. 

21.  JOHN  F.  PRESTON. 

22.  HENRY  R.  COGGSIIALL. 

23.  THOS.  DICKSON. 

24.  J.  ALEX’R  SIMPSON. 


KING  &  BAIRD,  PRINTERS, 

NO.  601  SANSOM  STREET,  PHILADELPHIA. 


